In an old book by one Franklin K. Young, I found the perhaps unintentionally
appropriate quote from Frederick the Great...

No man is so great an (fool/donkey) but that a greater (fool/donkey) may be
found to be his follower.

Now we know where the inspiration for Obi-Wan's remark to Han Solo came
from...

(What was appropriate about the quote? This was one of Franklin K. Young's
books about how to play Chess; his books on that subject are generally
felt to be a mass of impenetrable jargon of no practical use for that purpose.)

John Savard

On Wednesday, 9 February 2022 at 07:47:53 UTC, Quadibloc wrote:
> In an old book by one Franklin K. Young, I found the perhaps unintentionally
> appropriate quote from Frederick the Great...
>
> No man is so great an (fool/donkey) but that a greater (fool/donkey) may be
> found to be his follower.
>
> Now we know where the inspiration for Obi-Wan's remark to Han Solo came
> from...

Hmm. "Who's the more foolish, the fool, or the fool who follows him?"
But I've forgotten the context. Is it that Han Solo is being paid
to take Obi-Wan Kenobi to Alderaan - but apparently putting a
lot of trust in actually getting paid when they arrive?

> (What was appropriate about the quote? This was one of Franklin K. Young's
> books about how to play Chess; his books on that subject are generally
> felt to be a mass of impenetrable jargon of no practical use for that purpose.)

But then why is there more than one?

I keep meaning to read Stephen Hawking's _A Brief History
of Time_, about the beginning of the universe to now.
But maybe it's out of date?

On Wednesday, February 9, 2022 at 6:12:56 AM UTC-7, Robert Carnegie wrote:
> On Wednesday, 9 February 2022 at 07:47:53 UTC, Quadibloc wrote:

> > (What was appropriate about the quote? This was one of Franklin K. Young's
> > books about how to play Chess; his books on that subject are generally
> > felt to be a mass of impenetrable jargon of no practical use for that purpose.)

> But then why is there more than one?

This is a good question. And, not only that, some of the reviews it recieved at
the time were glowing and/or fulsome.

(In the prefatory remarks to the final book in the series, he notes that one needs
to learn by doing in Chess, also quoting Napoleon - and noting that Morphy didn't
write any chess books. So this presumably was before Steinitz and Tarrasch got
started.)

Franklin K. Young was actually quite a good chess player, as well.

One possibility is that the military terminology which he used in his works
actually _did_ mean something, even if it is very unfamiliar to modern
readers, and people at the time those books were written understood what
they were intended to say. I'm very skeptical, though, about that being the
case.

In any case, since all but the last of them are freely available on-line (the
last is also in the public domain, but only available for viewing and single-page
download through Hathi Trust) you may examine them and decide for yourself
if they have more merit than most chess players who have recently encountered
them have said.

John Savard

On Wednesday, February 9, 2022 at 3:04:17 PM UTC-7, Quadibloc wrote:

> In any case, since all but the last of them are freely available on-line (the
> last is also in the public domain, but only available for viewing and single-page
> download through Hathi Trust)

I am out of date and mistaken... the one I'm thinking of is now available for
full download on Google Books, but there was another one aflter it, also
in the public domain, apparently not available at all (Field Book of Chess
Generalship: Grand Operations).

John Savard

Greetings all,

On Wednesday, February 9, 2022 at 3:12:56 PM UTC+2, Robert Carnegie wrote:

> Hmm. "Who's the more foolish, the fool, or the fool who follows him?"
> But I've forgotten the context. Is it that Han Solo is being paid
> to take Obi-Wan Kenobi to Alderaan - but apparently putting a
> lot of trust in actually getting paid when they arrive?

I might be misremembering things because the last time I watched SW4: A New Hope my VCR machine ate my copy in an unrepairable way (if that doesn't suggest to you how ago that was then you probably need to do some reading about a long, long time ago, in a galaxy not so far away when DVDs didn't exist).

I seem to remember that Obi-Wan makes the comment to Solo after the Millennium Falcon has been tractor beamed onto the Death Star, and just before the Inspection Team is sent aboard by Vader.

One has to assume that Obi-Wan is tapping into a lot more wisdom / knowledge than anyone else, why else would he take them to Alderaan? They had no information (AFAIK) that this was where Vader and his minions were taking the Princess. Why would they be taking her back to her home world (unless you know that intending to use Alderaan as the Hiroshima / Nagasaki of the Death Star age)? Why not take her back to Corasanth (spelling I know) where the Emperor could put on a nice show trial and broadcast the subsequent execution to the whole Empire?

Clearly Obi-Wan had seen the future, up to an including his own "death" (if that what happens to Jedis when they just disappear leaving their Jedi cloak behind - See Yoda "death" in RotJ. Both Yoda and Kenobi end up as Force-ghosts (I think that is the offical term).
> I keep meaning to read Stephen Hawking's _A Brief History
> of Time_, about the beginning of the universe to now.
> But maybe it's out of date?

AFAIK Hawking spent a considerable amount of time and energy in his latter years recanting a section of the book dealing with the very late universe. As in the Big End. Apparently something about Time running backwards and stuff.

I have a copy (pre-recant) somewhere in my boxes. Parts of it made my head hurt when I read in my early 20s. Nowadays it would probably put me in the hospital with chronic brain ache. YMMV.

Regards
Frank

On 10/02/2022 00.58, Frank Scrooby wrote:
> On Wednesday, February 9, 2022 at 3:12:56 PM UTC+2, Robert Carnegie wrote:
>
>> Hmm. "Who's the more foolish, the fool, or the fool who follows him?"
>> But I've forgotten the context. Is it that Han Solo is being paid
>> to take Obi-Wan Kenobi to Alderaan - but apparently putting a
>> lot of trust in actually getting paid when they arrive?

> I seem to remember that Obi-Wan makes the comment to Solo after the Millennium Falcon has been tractor beamed onto the Death Star, and just before the Inspection Team is sent aboard by Vader.

You are correct.

> One has to assume that Obi-Wan is tapping into a lot more wisdom / knowledge than anyone else, why else would he take them to Alderaan?

Because that's her home planet?

--
Michael F. Stemper
Psalm 94:3-6

On Thursday, 10 February 2022 at 14:04:29 UTC, Michael F. Stemper wrote:
> On 10/02/2022 00.58, Frank Scrooby wrote:
> > On Wednesday, February 9, 2022 at 3:12:56 PM UTC+2, Robert Carnegie wrote:
> >
> >> Hmm. "Who's the more foolish, the fool, or the fool who follows him?"
> >> But I've forgotten the context. Is it that Han Solo is being paid
> >> to take Obi-Wan Kenobi to Alderaan - but apparently putting a
> >> lot of trust in actually getting paid when they arrive?
> > I seem to remember that Obi-Wan makes the comment to Solo after the Millennium Falcon has been tractor beamed onto the Death Star, and just before the Inspection Team is sent aboard by Vader.
> You are correct.
> > One has to assume that Obi-Wan is tapping into a lot more wisdom / knowledge than anyone else, why else would he take them to Alderaan?
> Because that's her home planet?

The mission is to deliver the Death Star schematics
to her father, Bail Organa, on Alderaan.

Hi all

On Thursday, February 10, 2022 at 11:19:56 PM UTC+2, Robert Carnegie wrote:

> The mission is to deliver the Death Star schematics
> to her father, Bail Organa, on Alderaan.

Ah... yes..., how could I forget?

The whole "rescue the princess" line is just to keep the greedy, self-interested Solo interested despite the fact that he has already been paid (probably not that well - Luke pawned his speeder for the fare), but then again from Solo's point of view it was probably a good time to be going anyway, nasty business with the Hutts and all that. I doubt the Empire (or the Hutts) would have been overly concerned with the shooting at the Cantenia. From the Empire's perspective just another nasty green non-human out of the way. For the Hutts, well obviously if Greedo (sp?) was that poor a debt collector he wasn't worth having on the pay roll.

Regards
Frank